Pages

Monday, 30 July 2012

Fiona is another strong lady who went through the mills and came out the other side. Thank you Fiona for sharing your story with us!

What type of
ectopic pregnancy did you experience?

I experienced an
ectopic pregnancy in my right fallopian tube in August 2008. It was my first
pregnancy and I was 8 weeks pregnant.

What were your
symptoms?

Inititally I had
a small amount of brown spotting. This
went away but at around 6.5 weeks I had small bleed. I never had any pain only a mild cramp on my
left side (opposite side to the ectopic).
They told me it was a ‘silent’ ectopic.

How was your
experience with the Doctor, & how were you treated?

Unfortunately my
experience wasn’t very positive. I went
to casualty after the small bleed. Although it wasn’t much I instinctively knew
something was wrong. I was scanned by a
junior doctor and then a senior doctor.
They were very busy and he, very matter of factly (in a busy corridor),
told me I was pregnant but they didn’t know where the pregnancy was and that
was it. I went home with my head in a
spin. I didn’t understand what that
meant and I didn’t ask enough/any questions at the time. I spent the night searching the internet for
information. The next week was tough I
had to go back every 48 hours for bloods and scanning. The HCG levels were rising but not enough so
they knew there was a problem but nothing was showing on the scan so I was
continually sent home and told to come back if I got a bad pain. After a week I started to feel unwell, had a
mild cramp on the left side and heavier bleeding so they told me to come back
in. They still couldn’t see anything on
the scan but the doctor in casualty thought I looked very pale and wasn’t happy
sending me home. On the ward I was
examined by a very rough doctor who told me to go home that there was no way it
was an ectopic as I would be in a lot more pain and wouldn’t be able to stand
the examination. Even if it was ectopic she said casually ‘its not going to
burst right away you would be in way more pain’. I was so emotionally drained at this stage it
seemed endless and I just wanted it to be over.
The next day they called me and asked me to come back in urgently that
they were not happy with the latest bloods.
This time thankfully they could see the ectopic on my right tube and I
was admitted. I felt really light
headed, sweaty and generally very unwell. It was late that evening so they said
a doctor would discuss it with me in the morning. I felt so sad that night and there was just
no support or kindness from anyone on the night shift. At every stage I dealt
with different doctors and nurses and had to explain everything from scratch to
each of them. Every time I came into the hospital for bloods/scans etc I was
waiting for hours which added to the stress. That night the nurse started to
ask me it all again for the file ‘Is
this is your first pregnancy?’ It was
all too much and I started to cry. She
just looked at the other nurse and said ‘She’s a bit upset’ and they drew the
curtains around me and left. No one took
even five minutes to talk to me about anything that was happening. I was devastated over the loss of the baby
but at that stage I just wanted the surgery as I was really scared. The next morning before surgery I did get one
fleeting stabbing pain in my right. The
doctor told me the operation would be 10 minutes if they decided not to operate
or 40 minutes if they operated. I woke
up 40 minutes later. The ectopic was
large and had ruptured and I was bleeding into the stomach. After the operation (literally right after I
was half unconscious and my husband hadn’t even seen me) the doctor told me
what happened and said they were surprised I wasn’t in agony and I was very
lucky. I managed to ask about future
fertility and she said no problem try again whenever you want but come in for
an early scan when pregnant. That was it
released with no follow up and no further discussions. Looking back I know my case was not textbook
for an ectopic so was difficult to diagnose but the experience was made a alot
worse by the lack of any medical or emotional support from start to finish in
the hospital. Although medication may
not have been an option for me it was never discussed. In fact there was no discussions at any point
and I never saw the same doctor to ask any question too.

Can you tell us a
bit about your emotions, family support (if shared) etc.

It was a huge
surprise to me how much of an emotional rollarcoaster this all was. I’m usually
a very good coper, easy going and take things in my stride. My mother had experienced several
miscarriages (some late) and often talked openly about how devastated she was
over these. I could never really
understand this until this happened to me.
I also had the added concern about my future fertility given the
surgery. My husband, close family and friends were great and very supportive. I didn’t tell a lot of people as found it too
painful to talk about. Looking back I
wasn’t really in a good place and went through a range of emotions and perhaps
even a bit of post traumatic stress.
Months later I ended up going for a couple of counselling sessions
(first time in my life) which were very helpful. Although it was never going to
be easy I do believe that if the hospital/doctors had talked to me a bit more
that it wouldn’t have been so traumatic.

What has happened
since?

Life could not be
better for me since those dark days. In
2009, I got pregnant and thankfully I had a perfect baby girl. I had miscarriage in 2011 which was very
upsetting but I personally didn’t find it in any way as traumatic as the
ectopic. I’m very happy to say I am now
typing this beside my beautiful baby boy born over 8 weeks ago. I can’t express how lucky I feel to have
these two babies. While the experience of ectopic was terrible I don’t think I
would appreciate them as much if it were not for the experience. I take nothing for granted anymore and know
that these babies and life in general is very precious.